HELLLPPP!!!!UNDER CALORIES BUT OVER SODIUM

Sodium makes me bloat if I go over, but I just drink a lot of water or exercise and it flushes out. It's more important to reach your other calorie goals for the day, like net calories, protein, carbs, and fat.

I can't see you food diary but I know canned foods have a ton of sodium and simply rinsing them really well before eating them gets ride of a lot of excess sodium. Also asking for no salt on hamburger patties, etc. when eating out helps a lot too.

Sodium will just make you retain water/bloat and sometimes if I get way too much it makes my legs hurt a lot. Also, high BP but if you are sticking to calories and losing weight your BP should go down anyway! Good job and good luck!!

The only 'rule' of weight loss is consume fewer calories than you burn.

Everything else is a lifestyle choice.

Assuming you don't have a specific identified medical reason to go low-sodium, just drink more water to redress the balance, and carry on. Worst case scenario is you'll have a small, and temporary water weight gain. But you'd have to be seriously over for that, unless you aren't drinking enough fluids too.

As everyone else said, sodium can have an impact on your heart health. I wouldn't recommend overconsuming all the time. If you eat a lot of prepared foods, you'll be taking in a lot of sodium. Once in awhile is no big deal but every day isn't good. Anything that comes packaged is going to be higher in sodium, anything you get in a restaurant will be higher.

Sodium makes your body hold on to water, so it may look like you're losing fat less quickly at the beginning, or the scale may fluctuate if your sodium intake fluctuates. But this is just water weight. Sodium can also contribute to or exacerbate heart and blood pressure issues. If you don't have any personal or family heart issues, including high blood pressure, sodium is pretty harmless. If you do have any family or personal cardiac issues, it's recommended to watch your sodium intake and keep it to less than 2,000 mg.

If you prepare your own food from scratch, you pretty much don't have to worry about sodium unless you add quite a bit. Eating out is a guaranteed way to go over your recommended daily intake (the Chipotle burrito I just ate had 2,000 mg by itself). Canned foods are generally high in sodium, as are prepared frozen meals, and any convenience foods like rice mixes, hamburger helper, etc. Like someone said, rinsing canned foods will decrease the amount of sodium, but of course you can't really measure that.

If you're feeling bloated from sodium, drinking plenty of water will help flush the bloat away. It sounds backwards, but water follows sodium. Eat a lot of salt, and your body will hold on to water. Since your kidneys excrete excess sodium, drinking a lot of water will slowly flush the excess sodium away, and since water follows sodium, the bloat will go away too.

Some people have trouble with sodium. I am one of those people. If my sodium levels aren't kept lower than the U.S. recommended daily allowance (which I think it way too high anyway and should be about 1500-1700mg/day), I bloat up like a balloon and pack on water weight very quickly. I feel like crud, I slack off on exercise, and my sleep pattern gets off. Also, my blood pressure was very very high before I started exercising and watching my sodium intake.

I, too, can not see your diary. However, I know that pre-packaged foods are high in sodium -- WAY high. Also, if you pick a food that is 'fat free' or 'sugar free' you may be trading the removal of said fats and sugars for the addition of sodium. That happens a lot. Read the labels - compare the labels. Pre-plan your food choices. Cook your own food in bulk and freeze it. If you have to stand in the grocery store reading labels for 30 minutes longer than normal, then do it. If it's something that's important to you, as it is to me, then you do what needs to be done. I used to worry that people thought I was a crazy person for as much label checking as I do, but it benefits me and gives me tools to teach my children about being healthy and making good choices. Screw what other folks at the store think about how long it takes me to pick out a can of soup when I feel like having a can of soup (although I invariably put the canned stuff back and just get veg and meat and make my own - more cost effective that way as well).

So I have logged my food for the day and realized I'm under my calories but way over my sodium. What type of effect will this have on my weight loss efforts....im really trying to follow the rules here..lol all response are welcomed

The now recommended sodium amount for adults with or without issues is 1500mg daily.

Too much sodium is not healthy for anyone particularly those that have health issues ...it's good to get enough if you workout hard and sweat a lot but not many of us are under in our sodium in life.

I'm always under 1500 but I don't eat foods that are take outs, canned soups, chips and junk like that. We all have our moments but I believe for myself eating over my sodium level is a once in awhile thing.. even if I'm way under cals.

I can eat one frozen meal and be over my sodium level.. some I've seen have 5000mg in one pkg. (small meal), same with McDonald's or any fast food..the sodium adds up QUICK.

I'm in a habit now of whenever I pick up a pkg. it's the sodium I glance at first before anything else..then the carbs, then the fat.

Hope this thread helps you understand how important it is to get it under control. You don't want to get health issues from too much, or if you already have health issues dropping it way down from what mg's you're using will help quite a bit.

:flowerforyou:

Some people have trouble with sodium. I am one of those people. If my sodium levels aren't kept lower than the U.S. recommended daily allowance (which I think it way too high anyway and should be about 1500-1700mg/day), I bloat up like a balloon and pack on water weight very quickly. I feel like crud, I slack off on exercise, and my sleep pattern gets off. Also, my blood pressure was very very high before I started exercising and watching my sodium intake.

I, too, can not see your diary. However, I know that pre-packaged foods are high in sodium -- WAY high. Also, if you pick a food that is 'fat free' or 'sugar free' you may be trading the removal of said fats and sugars for the addition of sodium. That happens a lot. Read the labels - compare the labels. Pre-plan your food choices. Cook your own food in bulk and freeze it. If you have to stand in the grocery store reading labels for 30 minutes longer than normal, then do it. If it's something that's important to you, as it is to me, then you do what needs to be done. I used to worry that people thought I was a crazy person for as much label checking as I do, but it benefits me and gives me tools to teach my children about being healthy and making good choices. Screw what other folks at the store think about how long it takes me to pick out a can of soup when I feel like having a can of soup (although I invariably put the canned stuff back and just get veg and meat and make my own - more cost effective that way as well).

awesome post!!:happy:

Sodium makes me bloat if I go over, but I just drink a lot of water or exercise and it flushes out. It's more important to reach your other calorie goals for the day, like net calories, protein, carbs, and fat.

I have to disagree with this response. I believe sodium is just as important as what you've listed. Not many ppl keep their sodium between 1500mg - 1700mg (men)..as the member above shared you have to be constantly vigilant on label reading.

It surprises me what I see shared on so many threads when others ask this same question and ppl respond that sodium doesn't matter unless you high blood pressure. I feel it DOES matter, even if you don't have issues, you don't want to get them do you?

I'm not talking high level athletes that burn cals quickly and sweat profusely that need to be sure they keep their sodium levels up. I'm talking about the rest of us.

So I have logged my food for the day and realized I'm under my calories but way over my sodium. What type of effect will this have on my weight loss efforts....im really trying to follow the rules here..lol all response are welcomed

The now recommended sodium amount for adults with or without issues is 1500mg daily.

Too much sodium is not healthy for anyone particularly those that have health issues ...it's good to get enough if you workout hard and sweat a lot but not many of us are under in our sodium in life.

I'm always under 1500 but I don't eat foods that are take outs, canned soups, chips and junk like that. We all have our moments but I believe for myself eating over my sodium level is a once in awhile thing.. even if I'm way under cals.

I can eat one frozen meal and be over my sodium level.. some I've seen have 5000mg in one pkg. (small meal), same with McDonald's or any fast food..the sodium adds up QUICK.

I'm in a habit now of whenever I pick up a pkg. it's the sodium I glance at first before anything else..then the carbs, then the fat.

Hope this thread helps you understand how important it is to get it under control. You don't want to get health issues from too much, or if you already have health issues dropping it way down from what mg's you're using will help quite a bit.

:flowerforyou:

Some people have trouble with sodium. I am one of those people. If my sodium levels aren't kept lower than the U.S. recommended daily allowance (which I think it way too high anyway and should be about 1500-1700mg/day), I bloat up like a balloon and pack on water weight very quickly. I feel like crud, I slack off on exercise, and my sleep pattern gets off. Also, my blood pressure was very very high before I started exercising and watching my sodium intake.

I, too, can not see your diary. However, I know that pre-packaged foods are high in sodium -- WAY high. Also, if you pick a food that is 'fat free' or 'sugar free' you may be trading the removal of said fats and sugars for the addition of sodium. That happens a lot. Read the labels - compare the labels. Pre-plan your food choices. Cook your own food in bulk and freeze it. If you have to stand in the grocery store reading labels for 30 minutes longer than normal, then do it. If it's something that's important to you, as it is to me, then you do what needs to be done. I used to worry that people thought I was a crazy person for as much label checking as I do, but it benefits me and gives me tools to teach my children about being healthy and making good choices. Screw what other folks at the store think about how long it takes me to pick out a can of soup when I feel like having a can of soup (although I invariably put the canned stuff back and just get veg and meat and make my own - more cost effective that way as well).

awesome post!!:happy:

Sodium makes me bloat if I go over, but I just drink a lot of water or exercise and it flushes out. It's more important to reach your other calorie goals for the day, like net calories, protein, carbs, and fat.

I have to disagree with this response. I believe sodium is just as important as what you've listed. Not many ppl keep their sodium between 1500mg - 1700mg (men)..as the member above shared you have to be constantly vigilant on label reading.

It surprises me what I see shared on so many threads when others ask this same question and ppl respond that sodium doesn't matter unless you high blood pressure. I feel it DOES matter, even if you don't have issues, you don't want to get them do you?

I'm not talking high level athletes that burn cals quickly and sweat profusely that need to be sure they keep their sodium levels up. I'm talking about the rest of us.

I would have to see a properly sourced study stating that it DOES matter, before I would agree. Otherwise, for the sake of adherence, why worry about it?

The FDA recommends no more than 2300mgs of sodium per day for most people, but 1500mg for those who are African-American, have high blood pressure or are over 50. I have high blood pressure and I have found almost all processed food has way too much sodium. Worse still, meat (especially chicken breasts) is often 'plumped up' with a saline solution. Which can add triple the sodium. Bread and baked goods are more culprits because of the salt, baking soda and baking powder they are made with. If you're looking to cut down on sodium, read your labels. Even a lower sodium version of something can have 500mgs of sodium. This is why I pretty much cook everything from scratch. If you don't have a condition requiring you to do so, you shouldn't have to go that far, but it's a good idea to keep it managed.

We so often see people try to put themselves on every common medically required diet, all at the same time - low salt, low sugar, low cholesterol. Is it any wonder so many people fail?

Even my doctor took me off my low-oxalate (kidney stones) and low-cholesterol diet, after he saw how well I was regulating my diet overall, and that I was keeping well hydrated.

Moral of the story - a well regulated diet generally doesn't require anything more in terms of tracking individual nutrients. And will be much easier to adhere to as a result.